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“You misspelled ‘Weltanschauung’” is perhaps the driest line in comics history.

I posted this two and a half years ago and I still hold this opinion. Also, Bill Watterson was so spot on with his commentary on the arts.

Sunday, November 13th 2016

I used to watch shows like Last Week Tonight, the Daily Show, Full Frontal, and the political bits on Colbert and Meyer. I can’t do it anymore. Since the election, politics just aren’t funny and entertaining anymore. They’re horrifying. I’ve stopped really looking at Twitter or Facebook, stopped checking the news. I can’t deal with it.

And yes, part of the problem is that the American system is inherently undemocratic. The Electoral College gives extra power to rural states, which is why in very close elections the conservatives win (E.g. 2000, 2016). The Senate gives extra power to rural states by giving every state two votes regardless of size. The House is gerrymandered beyond all reason. The system is tilted in favor of conservatism. And changing any of that would require amendments to the Constitution that simply will not happen because those with power will never vote to give it up.

None of that explains how so many ostensibly rational adults voted for someone who’s basically a psychopath for president. And I’ve read the think pieces. I know about the reaction of the rust belt, the manifold weaknesses of Hillary as a candidate, the swiftboating of Hillary, the suffering of the working class in the developed world, the rise of racism and sexism in reaction to the progressive movement of national culture, how Trump’s celebrity and non-stop attention from the media powered him to become the standard bearer of the unwashed masses, how social media has become an echo chamber where people only hear what reinforces what they already believe.

And if someone like John Kasich or Marco Rubio had been elected on the basis of those things, I would say fine. This is terrible but at least it makes sense. If a different celebrity had been elected on that basis, like Schwartzenegger or Jesse Ventura, I would say ok, I get it.

None of it makes sense of Trump to me. He is so plainly awful, so clearly morally bankrupt, so obviously a cartoon Bond villain.

And yet.

And so I’m stepping back. I’m not watching media coverage of politics. I’m rarely checking Facebook or Twitter. I’m not watching political comedy.

I just can’t cope with it.

Tuesday, September 13th 2016

“Peña Nieto’s administration recently announced it is seizing a privately managed railroad system that’s a key part of a network of cargo lines that has funneled hundreds of thousands of Central Americans through Mexico and into the US. Dubbed “La Bestia,” or “the Beast” due to the brutality of the journey atop it, the train has served as a cheap mode of transport for poor northbound travelers with no other option than climbing on the roof of freight wagons and hoping not to fall—or worse, be thrown off by the armed gangs that control access to the train. It’s a white-knuckle journey that can last days or weeks of fending off thirst, overhead tree limbs, and robbers.”

Oh good. Just straight back to a Monarchy for America. I like the conceit of a group of different Imperial Families, but really if you’re going to spend the next 24 years doubling down, you should make it explicit. America is going to need a new crown.

That’s. Not quite how monarchy works?

I mean, didn’t the U.S. have multiple Adamses and Roosevelts?

The Roosevelts were distant relations (fifth cousins). John and John Quincy Adams were, prior to the Bushes, the only direct relatives to both be President, although the Kennedys made a go at it.

So there is something a bit unsettling about the fact that Clinton will probably make it two such quasi-dynastic successions in fairly rapid succession. It was the main reason I supported Obama over Clinton in 2008, in fact - I was really disturbed by the prospect of the country spending more than a quarter-century with only two families controlling the Presidency.

So we’re all just ignoring the Bushes then?

Um. I literally talk about them in the second sentence.

To be pedantic, Benjamin Harrison was the grandson of William Henry Harrison. But otherwise, yes.

“I’m not a fucking genius. I work my ass off. Hamilton could have written what I wrote in about three weeks. That’s genius. It took me a very long time to wrestle this onto the stage, to even be able to understand the worldviews of the characters that inhabit my show, and then be able to distill that.” — Lin-Manuel Miranda

“Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have lies in this; when I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort that I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought.” —
Alexander Hamilton

Because PETA does not care about animals. they do not care that these dogs live and breathe and feel and want love like every other dog. they do not care about the history of human/dog bonding and co-evolution, they do not care that dogs and human beings have relied on each other for millennia, they do not care that its cruel and morally repugnant to put down an animal just because you can, they do not care about animals.

PETA cares about money and publicity, its a corporation run by a psychopath who is afraid of pitts as it states in the link: she was apparently bit by one, and now she hates them.

PETA doesn’t give a rats ass about animals. They just want to kill and make money off of idiots who fall of their spiel.

Some celebs support them

ah c’mon, dear-tumb1r, I think you’re being a bit harsh. I mean, okay, PETA’s done some questionable things, but it’s not like they’ve also

Most of us know about Speedtest.net, right? Well Comcast and Time Warner know about it too. They know customers use it to check to see if they’re getting what they are paying for. Comcast techs even tell customers to check their speed with Speedtest.net.

So, to make sure people think they are getting good speeds, Comcast and Time Warner prioritize traffic going to Speedtest.net. When you check your speed there it’s artificially inflated. That is NOT the speed you are getting when you browse tumblr and that is definitely not the speed you get when you watch Netflix.

Comcast and Time Warner can not artificially inflate the results by prioritizing traffic to Fast.net unless they also prioritize traffic to Netflix, and they definitely do not want to do that.

“David Icke’s claim that the world was run by a cabal of extra-dimensional lizard people is, of course, ridiculous. But as anyone who’s seen the inside of a department meeting can tell you, it’s still more plausible than the idea that academia runs the world, so let’s go with it.”